Larry Christiansen

Larry Christiansen
Christiansen at the 2002 U.S. Chess Championships in Seattle, Washington
Full name	Larry Mark Christiansen
Country	United States
Born	(1956-06-27) June 27, 1956 (age 68) Riverside, California, U.S.
Title	Grandmaster (1977)
FIDE rating	2571 (January 2025)
Peak rating	2625 (July 1992)
Peak ranking	No. 21 (July 1992)

Larry Mark Christiansen (born June 27, 1956) is an American chess player of Danish ancestry. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1977. Christiansen was the U.S. champion in 1980, 1983, and 2002. He competed in the FIDE World Championship in 1998 and 2002, and in the FIDE World Cup in 2013.

Biography

Christiansen grew up in Riverside, California, United States. In 1971, he became the first junior high-school student to win the National High School Championship. He went on to win three invitational U.S. Junior Championships in 1973, 1974, and 1975. In 1977, at age 21, he became a grandmaster without first having been an international master. Christiansen tied for first place with Anatoly Karpov at Linares 1981. He won the 2001 Canadian Open Chess Championship. He also won Curaçao 2008^[1] and the Bermuda Open 2011.^[2]

Christiansen played on the United States teams in the Chess Olympiad in 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1996 and 2002. He won the team silver medal in 1990 and the team bronze in 1982, 1984, 1986 and 1996.^[3]

Christiansen describes his playing style as "aggressive-tactical", and he lists his favorite opening as the Sämisch King's Indian.

Notable games

• Larry Christiansen vs. Chessmaster 9000 (September 2002), annotated at GameKnot:
  • Game 1, Game 2, Game 3, Game 4

Books

• Christiansen, Larry (2000). Storming the Barricades. Gambit Publications. ISBN 978-1-901983-25-8.
• Christiansen, Larry (2004). Rocking the Ramparts. Batsford. ISBN 0-7134-8776-3

See also

• Deep Blue (chess computer)

References

1. Chessvine Article, "Curacao 2008 - Larry Christiansen Wins!" Archived 2011-07-08 at the Wayback Machine
2. Chess Life Online "Larry Christiansen Wins Bermuda Open"
3. Wojciech Bartelski. "OlimpBase Men's Chess Olympiads Larry Christiansen". Olimpbase.org. Retrieved March 12, 2012.

External links

• Larry Christiansen rating card at FIDE
• Larry Christiansen player profile and games at Chessgames.com
• Larry Christiansen Chess Olympiad record at OlimpBase.org
• Larry M. Christiansen FIDE rating history at OlimpBase.org
• Larry M. Christiansen rating and tournament record at US Chess Federation
• Larry Mark Christiansen chess games at 365Chess.com
• worldchessnetwork.com
• biography Archived January 22, 2009, at the Wayback Machine

Achievements
Preceded by Lubomir Kavalek	United States Chess Champion 1980 (with Walter Browne and Larry Evans)	Succeeded by Walter Browne and Yasser Seirawan
Preceded by Walter Browne and Yasser Seirawan	United States Chess Champion 1983 (with Walter Browne and Roman Dzindzichashvili)	Succeeded by Lev Alburt
Preceded by Joel Benjamin, Alexander Shabalov, and Yasser Seirawan	United States Chess Champion 2002	Succeeded by Alexander Shabalov